Publishing a review
A review filed on Feedback Bureau goes through three steps before anyone else can read it.
- It is recorded as pending.
- A moderator checks it against the review guidelines.
- The moderator publishes it or rejects it.
Until step 3, the review is not on the company’s page and does not count toward its score.
At step 2 the moderator checks the following.
| Checked | The rule |
|---|---|
| Whose experience | It must be the author's own: an order placed, a booking, a visit or a quote from the company named. |
| Contact details | Links, phone numbers and personal details about staff are cut from the text. |
| Abuse | Threats and hate speech are taken out. |
| Who is filing | Repeat filings by one person are flagged, and so are reviews from a company's own staff or its competitors. |
| Frequency | Each reviewer may file about a given company once in 30 days. |
What a company can do once a review is published:
- It may post a public reply under any review.
- It may not edit, hide or remove a review, or pay to influence how one is handled.
Critical reviews and favorable ones pass through the identical procedure.
Scores and rankings
A company’s score is a plain average, worked out the same way for every company and rounded to one decimal place:
score = total stars in published reviews ÷ number of published reviews
Nothing in it is estimated or adjusted by hand, and payment plays no part in it.
A score receives a standing (the word in the table below) once the company has 5 published reviews. Before that, the number is still shown, in an open frame and marked provisional, because a few reviews can move it a long way in either direction.
| Standing | Score range | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Outstanding | 4.5 – 5.0 | 4.7 |
| Very good | 4.0 – 4.4 | 4.2 |
| Fair | 3.0 – 3.9 | 3.4 |
| Inadequate | 2.0 – 2.9 | 2.5 |
| Very poor | below 2.0 | 1.6 |
| Provisional | fewer than 5 reviews | 4.5 |
Sales and service, scored apart
A company can sell well and serve badly, or the other way round. So each reviewer states what the dealings were: a purchase, a quote, a service. When enough of them have answered, the page carries a sales score and a service score side by side.
Aspects and price questions
Beyond the overall stars, a reviewer may:
- rate four aspects: honesty and updates, price and charges, timing and process, and quality;
- answer two yes-or-no questions: was the final price the one quoted, and were unexpected fees added?
A figure built from these answers is published once 5 customers have given one.
Rankings
Sorting a list by rating uses a ranking figure, not the plain score. The ranking figure counts reviews as well as stars: three perfect reviews should not lift a company above one with forty very good ones.
To do that, every company starts with 5 imaginary reviews of 3.5 stars. Its real reviews then draw the figure toward its true average as they accumulate:
ranking figure = (3.5 × 5 + total of all stars received) ÷ (5 + number of published reviews)
Its only use is to put lists in order. A company’s page never shows it; the page shows the plain average.
Sources of reviews
Reviews reach the register by three routes.
| Source | Origin of the review |
|---|---|
| Filed directly on Feedback Bureau | Written and filed here by the customer. |
| Collected through the company's own customer feedback form | The company forwarded it to us from its own customers’ answers to that form. We refuse any feedback the company has selected, edited or paid for. |
| Imported from another review platform | The customer wrote it elsewhere; it is reproduced exactly as it appeared there. |
Keeping listings accurate
Every listing is assembled from four business details that we collect and check: name, address, phone number, website.
When a company closes, or its details can no longer be confirmed, the listing is hidden. It is not deleted, so its reviews stay on record.
Claiming a listing costs nothing. A company that claims its listing can correct its details and reply to customers; its score is unaffected.
Reporting a review
Every review carries a Report link. The procedure:
- You choose Report under the review. Grounds: it breaks the guidelines, it is about the wrong company, or you doubt it is genuine.
- A moderator examines the report.
- The moderator removes the review, keeps it, or asks its author for more detail.
Until the moderator decides, the review remains visible.